Unique, Tested Travelling Tips

My friend, Sasha, gave me this perfect little clutch for my birthday a couple of weeks ago. Of course, she made it! I just love everything about it: my favorite color, felt, velvet leaves, vintage button and pretty lining. It was wrapped beautifully, too. I only wish I had a photo.

Sasha is the best at wrapping gifts in a pretty and unique way, with a vintage twist.

These photos aren’t the best, as I snapped them quickly upon arriving to work this morning. But you get the picture.

It’s been a while since I’ve done an Etsy post, so why not start up again by featuring my mom’s new shoppe? Before starting out on Etsy, she sold quality, handmade clothing for Himstedts, as did I. You can still buy a few of her ensembles here {KinderCottageKeepsakes}, as well as see past creations.

Her new venture on Etsy is made up mostly of handmade, anime-style, felt dolls. We have decided they are so weird that they’re pretty cute! She also sells upcycled rings made with vintage earrings and buttons, plus fabric covered button earrings. So stop by and look around. She’ll have new items up soon! 🙂

I’ve been thinking a lot about velvet leaves and strawberries off and on……..as the urge for them comes and goes. One day I might be thinking about making a hat. And, “oh, velvet strawberries would look delicious on a hat!”. Or I might be searching Etsy and happen upon a vintage bag with velvet strawberries. “Oh, how pretty. I should make something like that.” So, recently I noticed these lovelies on Etsy at

WispsGathering Beauty. I really, really love them, but I thought, “Why pay for these when I can make them myself?”

Enter my first attempt at velvet strawberry making!

I really love the way this one turned out. I used a piece of GORGEOUS (the prettiest I’ve seen) crushed pink velvet that I’d been hoarding for quite some time. I had originally gotten it to make a jacket for a doll, but since I’m more into little random oddities these days, I figured it would never end up as a jacket anyway.

The strawberry greens are made of wool felt, since I was afraid that green velvet might fray and look messy. Besides, felt is so easy to work with and I think it looks really nice paired with the velvet.

Most of the velvet strawberries I see out there have white seeds, but I prefer the black, as they’re closer to the color of the real thing. I am running very low on the black seed beads, though, so the following strawberries might have to conform to the trends. 😉

I hope you enjoyed viewing my lovely strawberry. 🙂 I enjoyed making it and love the outcome so much, that I’ve cut out 24+ more strawberries that will hopefully make their way to my shoppe in the near future. Wish me luck, as I never seem to finish what I start. 😉 This time will be different…………

ps. I’m still loving those vintage strawberries……….I may just crack………… 😉

A disgusting spider! If you’re shrinking back from the computer in horror, don’t worry…..I did the same thing when I first saw this photo! Somehow this spidey looks a lot worse on the computer, illuminated by the camera flash, than it did when I was kneeling a couple of inches from it in the dim evening light. There was a pane of glass between me and the spider, or else you would NEVER have caught me so close!

Last but not least: a lovely little treasury that was featured on Etsy today: Such sweet colors: http://www.etsy.com/treasury_list_west.php?room_id=67486